American couple traces ancestry back to Nantwich hotel

Russell Crockett and his wife Janet outside the Crown Hotel in Nantwich

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An American couple’s quest to discover more about their ancestry saw them travel thousands of miles to a Nantwich hotel.

Reporter Rhiannon Hilton spoke to them about their research and the fascinating stories it’s uncovered.

WHEN Phillip Martin – owner of the Crown Hotel in High Street, Nantwich – spotted the name ‘Crockett’ in his guestbook, he knew instantly his visitors would be among the most memorable to date.

The name has been associated with the Grade II listed hotel since before 1572 and is surrounded by tales of murder, conspiracy and a fire which all but burned the town to the ground.

And, last week, Phillip came face-to-face with the 13th great grandson of Robert Crockett – the hotel’s landlord of more than 430 years ago.

Russell Crockett and his wife Janet’s visit from Salt Lake City in Utah followed several years’ worth of research into his ancestral line, with them making the Nantwich connection in the summer of last year.

“I knew that it’s been a long time since the Crocketts left England...in 1631, and we have it traced all the way back to the United States,” said Russell, 61. “It was a little iffy where they came from exactly in England but I was able to make that connection a couple of years ago.

“They actually, my ancestor, had left Nantwich and went to Devon, got married in Devon and had three kids there, they were all boys, and they left Devon and went to America.

“So, first I tracked it to Devon to a little town called Stoke Gabriel – so we went there – and then here we are.”

It was through Google – which has helped Russell with much of his research – that he learned of the The Crown Hotel.

He discovered that his ancestor Robert Crockett had been the landlord at the time of the Great Fire of Nantwich in 1583.

The blaze destroyed the building and much of the town but it was quickly rebuilt with the help of a donation from Queen Elizabeth I.

While Robert lived until he was in his eighties – having been born in the 1540s and dying in 1623 – Russell’s research uncovered an ancestor that had met a somewhat more grizzly end.

A man named Roger Crockett – who Russell thinks was Robert’s brother – was born in 1541 and is believed to have been murdered in Welsh Row in 1572 following a dispute over the ownership of a nearby field.

Russell said: “After it...his wife decided that she wanted to prove that he was murdered and that it was a planned thing, so she took his naked body and hung it in the town square here on market day so that people could see what had been done to him and how badly he’d been treated.

“There was a court case and so she did that so she could influence people, but she lost.”

Thanks to Phillip – who’s been at The Crown for 33 years – and Nantwich Museum, Russell and Janet, who are Mormons, have been able to fill in many of the gaps in their family history.

But it was also at the museum that they uncovered a connection to the name ‘Mannering’.

“I think Robert’s father’s name was Roger and he was married to a Mannering so we will probably be trying to track that line as that line goes back further,” said Russell.

“The Crocketts, the furthest we have been able to find means it will probably dead end at about 1530. But Mannering, they came into some nobility and they kept better records for those people – we can probably go back another four or five generations.”

There are also ‘Crockett links’ to Devon, Scotland and Germany, with much of the research into the latter carried out by one of Russell and Janet’s daughters and her English husband, who live in Devon.

Their other children – two daughters and a son – live in Utah.

Janet, 59, said: “Researching your family history just makes you really realise what some of your ancestors went through.”

Russell added: “I think it’s just a real feeling of satisfaction knowing that you’ve figured things out about your family. It grabs you and pulls you in so you want to learn more.”

Describing Nantwich as a ‘charming town’, Russell and Janet said their trip had been a ‘great experience’.

Their visit was also an exciting time for Phillip, who said it was amazing Russell has been able to trace his ancestry to such lengths.

“When I spotted the name in the book, the only name of Crockett I know is Roger Crockett...so I knew it couldn’t just be a coincidence,” he said.

And like Russell and Janet, he’s also fascinated by Nantwich’s rich history.

“It’s amazing how important the town was - and the rush to put it right. You build a house these days and it may last 100 years...but these were built 430 years ago and it’s a credit to the people that built them that they’re still standing.”